“What can you say about a twenty-five-year-old girl who died? That she was beautiful. And Brilliant. That she loved Mozart and Bach. And the Beatles. And me.” Erich Segal’s Love Story opens with these lines, which suggest that a person is best defined through instantly discernable neon-highlights — the girl’s beauty, her brilliance, her love for Mozart, Bach, the Beatles. It’s what Alfred Hitchcock said: “Drama is life with the dull bits cut out.” Then there are others like the Belgian director Chantal Akerman who prefer to define a life with the “dull bits”. One of the most telling scenes in her most famous film — Jeanne Dielman, 23 Commerce Quay, 1080 Brussels (1975) — is that of the protagonist in her kitchen, peeling potatoes.

An impactful film with an unusal, unhurried film language. But with deep ideological flaws, imo.

Firstly, I’m a Coimbatorean and, to be sure, such stray incidents (though I’m not aware of them) might have occurred. There is no dearth of idiots anywhere in any country. But the deep Islamophobia portrayed here is certainly not the ground reality in Coimbatore. In the view of portraying Islamophobia, films like these end up spreading Hinduphobia unconsciously. Accentuating the polarisation in society, even as they satisfy the taste buds of a certain kind of audience.

Nandita Das’s FIRAAQ is one example that comes to mind. Though thematically similar, how beautifully she had brought in the layers such a story demands. That is a balanced and complete film this director could learn from.

@doctorhari: I didnt see the film as commentary on Coimbatore specifically. IMO, it is a simple story about how normal people leading simple lives (and having middle-class probs around health, finances etc.) may become incidental victims of religious extremism from any sect